Nov 11, 2015
So here's my take on Bleach, before many people start bashing on me. Just note that this is my opinion, hence I'm justified to say what I think about the series, and I'm not inclined to praise a popular series if I don' like it.
Anyway, Bleach has been a staple manga among Shonen demography since it's release. Considered among one of the big 3 mangas along with Naruto and One Piece, Bleach has gained considerable amount of fanbase since it's debut. And I've to say I was one of those fans, but somewhere along the way I just stopped.
Story:
Bleach like almost any Shonen has a
...
arc-arc type of plot structure with one plot overarching the others. Focusing on Ichigo, a teenager who has had the ability to see spirit since he was born. A chance encounter with a soul reaper Rukia, he gets turned into a substitute Soul reaper. The series started out so well, and had consistent development even well into the 3rd major arc i.e the Arrancar arc. But somewhere along the way the quality of the storytelling was starting to decrease. This was very prominent during even during the 1st part of the Arrancar arc, where a lots of new characters got jammed into the manga without any explanation or development whatsoever. Plus the whole first part of Arrancar arc is based on the "let's rescue the princess" notion. So it cannot help but spiral into clichedom. Not to mention, the 2nd part rehashes the DBZ method of "Let's get powered up in a span of day by doing this". But keeping that aside, the ending of Arrancar arc was the perfect moment for the series to come to a close. But Kubo tried to milk more money, and the story got even more brutally worse with inconsistent, mockworthy explanations added in with (SPOILER AHEAD!!!!!!) someone being turned into a hybrid of Hollow, Human, Soul Reaper and Quincy, which totally underhands and contradicts the development featured in the previous arc of the series.
Another thing which brings down the storytelling is, it's just fighting. I mean I get it, it's a Shonen. But it doesn't need to be all about fighting. Kubo seems to focus more on giving us fight scenes than do actual plot development.
As a caveat, I'll say if you want a closure, end the manga when the arrancar arc ends, otherwise you might regret it.
Characters:
Here's another weak point of the series. If you are expecting some kind of grounding and progressive development within a character, Bleach is not for you. Bleach like many Shonen has a very colourful cast. Most of them do fall into shonen stereotype, which is not bad. But what makes them weak is that the character development througout the series has been very inconsistent. Orihime's characters goes back and forth and becomes useless after some point. Not to mention she keeps repeating the cliched line of "I will not drag Kurosaki-kun anymore", it becomes like a motto but she never lives upto it. Rukia's character is almost the same. Chad is even worse. The character development worsens even more during the arrancar arc, when there's a handful of new characters jammed in. Their development is really bad, and even worse they disappear after the end of this arc. So Kubo likes making colourful character, but does not know how to handle them and ends up ruining them in a farcical way.
Art:
One of the best point of the series. The Art is great. Better than both of it's big 3 competition. The fights are illustrated very neatly and in details, and trust me there's a lot of fighting (well it's just fighting from start till end).
Overall:
The Bleach is a prime example of how not every popular manga need to be good. But it isn't necessarily bad either. And is totally readable to some extent unless you like to nitpick on details. With a huge cast and intriguing concept, Bleach could've easily been the best out of the big 3 but sadly Kubo's dullard way of writing really drags the manga down. So it ends up as one of those overlong mangas without any quality.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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